Wet n Wild vs Orly

Who isn't looking for ways to save money these days? Bad economy brings on "The Lipstick Phenomenon". When the economy tanks we buy more lipstick. It's a cheap pick me up, or at least relatively speaking. As things get worse this drops off, of course. It's easy to see why. You're not going to keep on buying lipsticks. But if you could get more than one for the same price as a more expensive option, wouldn't you do it?

I've already shown that some Wet n Wilds can get pretty close to their more exclusive counterparts. I have another offering today.

Not exact dupes, you can see that. Close though. Very close. These are Orly Rock Solid, from their MineralFX collection and Wet n Wild Rock n Roll from the Fergie Collection. The Orlys go for $10. The WnW was $3.49. You do the math.

Another bottle shot to try to show just how similar these actually are. The Orly has more black in it, the WnW is more steely. They both have the holo particles and the Fergie has larger glitter. Still...for $7.50, which is lunch if you're frugal....the Wet n Wild starts to look pretty good!

I did swatch these on my nails and it didn't come out so you could see the differences. I thought white paper might be better to really let you see. The Orly, however, washed out some in the light from the flash. It's every bit as sparkly but I guess you have to take my word on it. The glitter in the Fergie took more advantage of the flash while the glass fleck in the Orly subdued. It's just the nature of the ingredients, I'm afraid.

This shows it a bit better. This also shows that while the Orly has more desnse particles in it, the Fergie has a black jelly base to work with, which is where some of it's color comes from. I think it's just a different take on the same idea.

Because of the particles, the chunky glitter in Rock n Roll vs the glass fleck and holo in Rock Solid, you will have different drying textures. The Orly will dry smooth, the WnW won't. End of story. That is a personal choice. Also, the Orly will come off and not leave you looking like a Vegas show girl when you take it off. Just some things to keep in mind. I think the WnW did have more sparkle to it while the Orly was a bit more sedate. If you can use that word in reference to a polish like these. 

They are both beautiful and distinct, and clearly I have them both, but if you only want one the Wet n Wild will get you the look for quite a bit less. You can literally get three Wet n Wild Fergie polishes for the cost of this one Orly. Literally. More if you stick to the regular collections at $2 a piece.

Do what you gotta do.

Hope this was helpful!

Happy Talons!

butterLONDON Dressing Table Collection - The Black Knight

This will be a very short post because, as it turns out, I only managed to get two pictures! The last post was over pictured, this one will be under. This is really spectacular and I don't know of anything else like it. It's sold out right now on butterLONDON.com, but it is still available out there and I'd snap it up if I could. It's a limited edition, though it is listed on butter's website almost like a regular polish. One can never really be sure what they will do!

OOOO, lord! Look at that thing. It's chunky, yes. You're going to want a top coat on this, but...don't you put one on anyways? It's hardly a sacrifice.

Look at all the colors in there! Blue, pink, purple, silver...whatever else you can find in there. I'd be afraid to wear this for long, I'd probably wreck my car looking at it.

This is two coats, too. This is very opaque, way more than you could ever expect it to be. I wish I had a couple more pictures or at least one really amazing one. I haven't done this justice. Definitely find this somewhere!!!


Happy Talons!

Manic Panic Hellfire Wear

We already know that Hellfire is AWESOME. I wanted to put in a short update to let you know how it wore. AWESOME.

I do finally have some significant chipping. It's been days now. Personally, I think this isn't bad after about 5 or 6 days of wear, especially as I did not reapply top coat.

This is a tad blurry, but you can see the wear. It also does a pretty good job showing off the sparkly goodness!

See, this is completely fixable, if you want to take the time.

I won't be afraid to try this brand again, not by a long shot. I have 3 other colors, but there is a whole other line. My understanding is the ones I have are from last Halloween's collection, which is cool. Some really fun stuff comes out at Halloween!

Happy Talons!

Manic Panic Hellfire

Manic Panic is a brand I discovered by accident. It's a small independent, vegan, and with an interesting line. They seem to specialize in hair dyes... Here's a linky so you can check them out: http://www.manicpanic.com

The bottles are REALLY cool:

They're tiny at only .25 fl. oz. but at only $4, do you care? I love the little witch hat caps and let me tell ya, it was really easy to use! The only thing I disliked about the bottles was the opening for the brush is minute. You have to aim for it. The upside to this is that you don't really get too much polish gunked up on the brush or wand because it kind of cleans it for you.

Hellfire is so aptly named I can't even stand it. At first glance I thought, oh. A cheap clone of Rescue Beauty Lounge's Black Russian. Wrong. Where Black Russian is all subtlety and sex appeal, Hellfire is anything BUT subtle. It looks dangerous. It glows.

This looks a little brown with this light, but it's red and orange and FIRE! I love it. It's a black base and this would probably make a spectacular top coat to a black polish. I may try that! On the first layer, the red glitter is kind of sparse. I thought I was going to have a hot mess on my hands. Second coat just added depth, evened out the black...gorgeous. I had to go for a third coat and as you can see, it gets so deep you could almost swim in it. This is a stunner. I love. It went on so easily too, and dried fast. I literally would do all 10 nails and then layer immediately right over. It handles so nicely. The first coat is a bit of a streaky mess, which is what made me think...top coat over black? The second coat took care of that. It just got richer and richer.

Here's a partial sunshine shot:

The first bottle shot is closest to color, honestly. And I don't have a chip on the index nail, I don't know what that is!
Look at the fire here, and this isn't even a good swatch! I will try to get a full sun picture for you. I'll be reporting back in a couple days on how this wore so I can post it then. It's an eye catcher, it takes no prisoners.

And how can you not love that name. HELLLLLLFIRE! Hells yeah.

Mechanics:

This manicure is:

1 coat Seche Base Coat
1 coat Nailtiques 2
2 coats Seche Rebuild
3 coats Manic Panic Hellfire
1 coat Seche Vite top coat

I definitely recommend. I got good service, everything arrived pretty fast, the price was sure right...how can you go wrong? There is another line from this one called Claw Polish, but I've not tried it yet. If it's like this, then it's good!

Happy Talons!